[Randall Emmett and Richard Jackson turned a chance meeting at a high stakes poker game in Las Vegas into a movie production deal. In this second part of the series, their new business venture takes flight and moves from the poker table to the movie set.]

From their table talk at the Venetian to a follow-up meeting in Atlanta, a long-term partnership was formed between Emmett's film company with partner George Furla, Emmet/Furla Films, and Emmett and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's Cheetah Vision Films, and Richard Jackson and his newly formed Action Jackson Films, LLC (AJF). They plan to produce three to five pictures a year, with AJF privately funding a percentage of each film. The first film to be made under the new venture is The Gun which stars 50 Cent and Val Kilmer. Filming on The Gun recently wrapped up, just about six months after the two men, now business partners, met across the felt.

Emmett is amazed by the speed of their partnership. "We met in July, did the deal in September, and it's been under a year and we've already finished the movie. It was a record pace for me meeting somebody and putting a movie into production, somebody that I'd not done business with. Beyond lightning speed."

For Jackson, his new role as a movie investor is as exciting as it was unexpected. "This came completely out of the blue. I wasn't looking for an opportunity to put money in the movie business." Jackson had in fact been approached in the past to invest in movies, but declined because "it never made sense economically." But this one made sense. Last month Jackson flew to Michigan to watch the filing of the movie, his first time on a movie set. He also has visited 50 Cent's mobile music studio and listened to some of the songs that will be part of the movie's soundtrack. Though not much of a rap fan, he was blown away by what he heard.

Emmett said that this was the first time he has ever made a business deal at a poker game. "Most of my deals have been made over the telephone. You're buying scripts from agents and then you're meeting with distributors and financiers and you're sitting in an office and negotiating with lawyers representing both sides. That's more traditional. Poker tables are not the place I look for my colleagues."

But there was something intriguing about Jackson, and Emmett relied on his read about the businessman. "When you're playing the high stakes games you can really define who's a poker professional/hustler and who's maybe a wealthy business man who is enjoying himself. I could tell for sure that [Jackson] was a serious, straightforward guy. I had a good read that he was a successful business man and I had a very good hunch that he was very serious when he said he wanted to make an investment in the movie business and he was ready to go."

Meeting a potential business partner at a high stakes poker game was a first for Jackson as well. He has met many interesting people playing at the $5-$10 and $10-$20 no-limit hold 'em tables. "But," he said, "I've never followed it up with a phone call, so that's the first time this has ever happened to me."

Will the poker table be the new place for deal making? As Emmett sees it, the poker table is a microcosm of the real world. "You have to be able to read people. Everybody's trying to take everybody's money; it's kind of ruthless. It reminds me of how life is, people are nice and then when money is involved, things change. It's actually a really good business lesson."

Jackson reflected on how gambling a few thousand dollars at the Venetian ended up with a business deal worth millions. "It's the most expensive poker game I've ever had, or maybe I'll make up my poker losings from that deal."

Emmet and Jackson talk about a lot more these days than just poker, but they have talked about that poker game ever since.

Shari Geller is an attorney, journalist, reporter, blogger, poker player, and observer of the poker scene. You can write her at BurnThis2@aol.com, and read her blog at www.burnthistoo.blogspot.com.